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Hopkins beats Cloud to become boxing's oldest champion

Keith Thurman shuts out Jan Zaveck to win his 20th fight without a loss. It was the first time Thurman has gone more than eight rounds. Thurman outlanded Zaveck 217-110 overall and 150-77 on power punches. "I

Bernard Hopkins continues to thumb his nose at Father Time, outsmarting and outpunching Tavoris Cloud Saturday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. to win a unanimous decision and Cloud's IBF light-heavyweight title.

With the win against a fighter 17 years his junior, Hopkins became boxing's oldest champion at age 48. The loss was the first for Cloud, who is promoted by 81-year-old Don King.

Hopkins broke his own longevity record, which he set at age 46 with a victory against Canadian Jean Pascal for the WBC light heavyweight title in Montreal on May 21, 2011.

Hopkins lost that title last April to Chad Dawson, but came back for another shot.

"I'm fighting old school in a new world," Hopkins said. "I had to learn to adapt if I wanted to stay in the game and win.

Hopkins said afterwards, "I might go till 50," then said he was only kidding. "I'm here to stay but I won't be in the ring at 50 years old," he said. "I just think there's an opportunity for me to prove I'm different."

Nobody can argue that after his sterling performance against Cloud.

Hopkins (53-6-2, 38 KOs), whose nickname is "The Executioner," executed this fight to perfection. He never let Cloud get his feet set, and used his ring skills and amazing boxing acumen to keep Cloud at a distance, often off-balance and unable to do what he does best, which is come forward throwing a lot of punches.

Hopkins outlanded Cloud 169-139 in overall punches, and landed 110 of 227 power punches, an astounding 48%, according to CompuBox statistics.

"I stuck to the plan. Just took a little time to get warmed up," Hopkins said. "I was trying to throw four or five punches that I normally don't throw and it seemd to throw him off. "

Cloud suffered a bad cut over his left eye early in the fight -- it was ruled by referee Earl Brown to be from an accidental headbutt, but an HBO replay showed it was from a punch. Hopkins zeroed in on the cut throughout the 12-round affair with precision punching. By the end of the fight, Cloud was cut over both eyes.

Hopkins said he hopes his historic win is a lesson that everyone in sports can learn: "You can do it clean."

He joked that he told Cloud, "I won't be here for too much longer, only about five more years," he said, then added: "I have a history of destroying young champions."

Cloud, 31, fell to 24-1 with 19 KOs, and told Hopkins after the fight, "I do not idolize you. You're a good fighter, and I respect you."

"I was only average tonight," Cloud said. "He hit me with an elbow, but I'm not complaining. The good thing about boxing is that you do it inside of the ring without guns, and everybody lives to fight another day."

On the undercard, Keith Thurman shut out Jan Zaveck to win his 20th fight without a loss. It was the first time Thurman has gone more than eight rounds in his career, and just the second in which he did not knock his opponent out.

Thurman outlanded Zaveck 217-110 overall and 150-77 in power punches.

"I have more experience but it didn't show tonight. It went the distance but I couldn't do it," Zaveck after his loss.